


Come On Home

by ScarletteStar1



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F, Holidays, Kissing, Lesbians, Longing, Love, Make up sex, Making Up, New Years, Very Slight AU, canon lesbian characters, jealous carol, martinis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:47:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22035055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletteStar1/pseuds/ScarletteStar1
Summary: "Beautiful," Carol whispers. "Dear god you're fucking perfectly beautiful. I never want to be anywhere but inside of you.""And yet," Therese's smiling lips tease Carol's chin as she pulls Carol up and onto the bed. Quickly, bras are unfastened so bare breasts can press lushly against one another. Therese climbs atop Carol and looks down at her. "Fingers or tongue?' she asks, breathless, but brave.
Relationships: Carol Aird/Therese Belivet
Comments: 16
Kudos: 146





	Come On Home

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays my dearests. I hope you are all well, healthy and happy in this time of light. I really wanted to write a little something for you for Christmas, but then it turned into NYE, so, here we are. This fandom continues to own my heart and soul and I am so eager to hear from everyone and to know how you are and what you are up to. Please leave me a sweet little treat in the comments. This fit is a bit more erotic than some of my fare so, if that is not your thing, please take care of you and no offense taken my loves. I weathered a particular loss this fall, and my heart has not quite recovered, so I wrote this with that partially in mind, and with a fantasy of how I'd love to reconcile. . . At any rate, happy whatever you are up to, and many hugs and kisses from yours truly. xoxo.

New York City streets are noisy, chaotic, unforgiving to solitary travellers.

At least, this is what Carol thinks as she traverses up and down curbs, over puddles of oily slush, and deep into man-made canyons. Would that she could become an explorer and be utterly lost among the metropolitan mountains and valleys. Would that she would freeze to death and not be found until spring thawed the world.

At least, this is what she thinks as dusk nears and windows flicker with brightly lit displays, still featuring Christmas themes, despite the holiday having come and gone several days ago. Carol wanders through Rockefeller Center and considers heading toward Broadway or Radio City to take in a show at the last minute, but she knows it is no use. Even in the most brilliant hub of the universe, she cannot lose herself.

Nor can she be found.

Although, she is lost. Or maybe it is more accurate to say she has lost something the likes of which she cannot find anywhere, no matter how hard she searches, and search she does. 

So, she seeks to lose herself in light and shadow, in the embrace of her massive fur coat, in the loud volume of the city's ugly orchestra.

She'd thought there would be some relief after the actual day passed by, and she did share a few moments of genuine joy watching Rindy beneath the tree as she opened dollies and dresses, each one more perversely lavish than the last. But then, Rindy asked, "Mummy, why haven't we set up the trains 'round the tree?" 

And Carol had to flounder to find words. Lies really. "Oh, now, Darling, the track is missing some pieces and doesn't quite work this year."

"But can't your friend come and fix it for us? She helped put it together before." 

"No. No, Darling. Mummy's friend has gone away." Carol tossed back her drink to the dregs, patted her pockets for her cigarettes. Not finding any, she'd slumped onto the couch to watch Rindy play with her new toys. But the child was relentless. She crawled up next to Carol and snuggled into her side. Carol dropped a kiss onto her upturned face. 

"Why would she leave us at Christmas time? Doesn't she know we need her here to help with the trains?" 

"I suppose she doesn't know," Carol had sighed. It wouldn't do to explain to a youngster that her paramour had left her for sights unseen. Presumably greener pastures. She didn't understand it herself. How could she make her child grasp the hollow ache of longing, the incomprehensible absence of her other self. 

"Of course she mustn't know, else she'd never have left us, would she?" Rindy reasoned and reached up to play with the string of pearls at Carol's throat. "But where's she gone to?"

Carol had inhaled deeply, and pondered this question as she remembered the final farewell on the steps of Therese's apartment building, how kisses had mingled with tears. At least she'd not begged or insisted. She'd tried to understand, although she couldn't. Not really. Not even at all. Carol had cleared her throat and made a bleak chuckle for her daughter. "She had business, important business, back with her fairy folk in fairy land," Carol said at last to appease the child nuzzled next to her. Her voice was a raspy husk in the back of her throat. She'd patted Rindy and insisted they go find cookies, confident that sugar could dissuade her daughter from this course of questioning. 

Pulling her coat around her, she wonders how Therese spent the day. "Christmas. Fucking Christmas," she hisses into the wind. She tries not to clench her jaw in a most vicious and unladylike way when she wonders with whom the petite brunette might have spent her time. And the thought of encroaching new year and someone else kissing those delicious, raspberry lips at midnight actually elicits a growl from someplace primal and unknown within her. 

What would she have given Therese for Christmas? "Anything, Therese. I'd have given you anything," she mouths against the billowing sky and then smiles fiercely to find herself speaking to the air. 

Snow begins to fall, obscuring the filth of the city with downy sparkles. Carol shivers. 

She enters a bar for refuge, walks up several flights of stairs to the rooftop restaurant. Still chilled from the winter evening, she does not check her coat, but keeps it about her shoulders. She orders a martini and forgets to specify she'd prefer three olives, but such pretenses hardly seem important anymore. She sits at a table in a window and looks out over the dazzling lights of the city. After her first drink, she feels her blood begin to warm and takes off her coat. She doesn't bother to get up and check it, but allows it to drape wantonly over the back of her chair. 

"Are you meeting someone?" The waiter asks. Carol shakes her head. He offers her a menu, which she accepts as she orders another drink. After the second martini courses through her system, the lights and buildings below her begin to look like one of the tiny towns in a shop window, or set up next to a toy train track. The thought of Therese in her red, Santa hat always makes her smile, even as it brings tears to her eyes. Through the kaleidoscope of tears, lights splay and flash. It's almost enjoyable, almost hypnotic. She orders another drink. 

The gin is perfectly cold and the olive's salty tang is delightful as she mashes it between her teeth. It's as close to being lost to the pain as she's been since Therese left. Relief floods her and she is excited for a brief moment, so excited she wishes to tell Therese how it feels to find a moment's peace. But then she realizes, like a dog chasing its own tail, that she cannot and impossible pain fills her once more. 

A man sits down at a piano and begins to play soft jazz and his music mingles with the voices of the other patrons. A large group of youngsters comes in and gets rowdy and cheerful at the long, gleaming bar. Carol, keeps her attention on the window, only half aware now of the sounds, comfortably numb and placated by the display of lights before her. She imagines Therese out, playing and laughing, in such a group. It is such a vivid fantasy, she practically hears Therese's voice. The notion she is now having auditory hallucinations alerts her to the fact she should take her leave and make her way back to her own corner of the city. 

"Carol?" 

"Mmmh? Yes, I'll take the check please," Carol says without looking up. The disembodied voice repeats her name. Carol turns her head. She blinks hard to clear the hot tears that are so suddenly filling her field of vision. "Is it you?"

"It's me," Therese says. "May I?" 

"Please," Carol says and Therese takes a seat at Carol's lonely table. "Are you with them?" Carol nods toward the group of folks at the bar. 

"Them? No. I don't know them."

"How? Then. . . What are you doing here? How are you here?" Carol twists her gloves in her hands.

"Your doorman said you favor this spot," Therese explains, filling in information for all the questions Carol cannot find words to ask. "He said I might find you here. I. . . I hope it is alright that I came?" 

"Yes. Of course," Carol says, not intending to sound so stiff. "Rindy missed you on Christmas. She wanted her trains set up around the tree."

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there," Therese says and puts her hand on the table, quite close to Carol's. 

"Are you?"

"Yes. Very."

"Well, I expect you had a fun day and were with many charming people?" Carol says and Therese is silent. Carol exhales sharply and says, "And were you?" 

"No," Therese shakes her head and looks down with a sad smile. "I was alone. I was driving through Canada." 

"Indeed?"

"Indeed. I drove almost all day and all night to try to make it back here, but the car had trouble and I had to stop upstate for a couple days."

"I see," Carol says and isn't sure if it is Therese's pale, sweet face with all of its little points and dimples, or if it is the alcohol, but she is suddenly quite confused, and her confusion makes her cross. 

"I was driving home, Carol, because I wanted to be here. With you." Therese puts her hand over Carol's but Carol snatches her hand away. 

"So that's it then? You've come home?"

"Yes. . .I. . . I hope it isn't too late, Carol." Therese bites her bottom lip and reaches again for Carol's hand. This time Carol allows her to caress it. 

"And did you find whatever it was you were searching for on your journey, Therese? Did you find what was so important? Did you find what you needed to make you whole and complete?"

"No. I didn't," Therese says with a heavy sigh. 

"How will I know that you won't just pick up and leave me again then, Therese? Because I don't think I can bear it. You're so young. Your heart is green, Dearest. You have the pliability of youth, but I. . ." Carol trails off and shoves her arms into her coat. "Anyway, I was just about to leave. It was lovely to see you. I hope you have a happy new year."

Carol trots off down the stairs, yanking her fingers into her gloves as she goes, and finds herself back on the street which is now covered in a fresh, white blanket of snow. She begins walking toward home when she feels an arm link itself into her elbow. Therese has followed her out of the bar and into the streets. She steers Carol into an alley and backs her up against the bricks of a building. "You didn't allow me to finish," she whispers and her heated breath smells like candy canes. Carol instantly throbs with the sensation of having her close. 

"Didn't I?" She grumbles. "Fine. Finish saying what you want then." 

Therese opens her mouth as if she is about to speak, but Therese doesn't say a word. Reaching out, she opens Carol's coat, threads her arms around Carol's slim waist and presses her body as close as she might. Unable to resist, Carol returns the embrace. They take a moment in which they find one another's gaze and all of the steel and sapphire surprise and desire writ therein. They find the same breath and float on it with one another.

At last, their lips come together, immediately wet and wild and wanting so much more than they might attain out in the cold up against a wall. Carol's hand reaches instinctively for Therese's soft round ass and pulls her savagely close so they can and wring every last tingling second of pleasure out of their kiss.

They lick and suck and bite until at last they fall against one another, panting softly. Therese's hand wanders up to graze over Carol's sweater sheathed breast. 

Carol takes off a glove so she can touch the crisp line of Therese's jaw with her bare fingers. "You're really here. And you've grown mighty bold since you've been gone, little elf. Who on earth could have taught you such things?" 

"No one, Carol. There's been no one."

"Is that so?" Carol murmurs and dips her head to kiss Therese's neck, just below her jaw. "Then to what might I attribute this sudden, unbridled ardor?"

"I just missed you. Take me home, won't you? I want you. I want you so much! Or. . . is it too late? Can you not forgive me?" 

The desire to fill her mouth with Therese overrides any sense of righteous indignation Carol might have possessed. The need to strip off their coats and rip open their blouses to feel their breasts rub against one another overpowers. But then. . . "I'll not take you home," Carol moans. 

"Oh, Carol-"

"Hush. Home is too far. I can't wait that long. There's a hotel just over on the next block. We'll go there now." 

Checking into the hotel seems to take forever, and the ride up in the elevator seems ridiculously long.

No sooner do they shut the door behind them, then they seek one another's flesh, peeling layers of winter wear away, unwrapping softness and warmth below.

Carol tears the blankets back from the bed and pushes Therese in only her bra, skirt, and stockings onto the sheets. "Off with them now," Carol commands with a brusk nod, her platinum hair bobbing against her face. Therese slips out of her skirt and stockings, leaving on just her panties and bra as Carol does the same with her own garments. 

Carol kneels before the diminutive woman who's perched on the edge of the bed, and caresses the supple curve of her waist. Carol bends to mouth her breast over the silky fabric of her bra. She trails her tongue over the nipple she can feel is hard and aroused just on the other side of the thin barrier. Therese's breath hitches and she grabs Carol's hand, thrusts it up between her legs and wriggles against it. Carol sucks and nips at Therese's breast as she slips just one finger under the lacy ridge of Therese's panties, right at the join of her thigh and crotch. Therese moans and Carol inserts another finger into the panties, walks them over Therese's labia, and fondles the needy slit.

Therese strokes up the golden velvet of Carol's slender back and weaves her fingers into Carol's hair, bringing her mouth from nipple to lips so they can ravage one another in a series of kisses. Therese feels her climax build quickly, as Carol's fingers pluck professionally at her throbbing clit. And at the moment of perfect crisis, she grasps Carol's wrist and trusts her fingers deep inside of her, comes all around her, and clings furiously to Carol from inside and out as her body shivers and shakes in almost unbearable pleasure.

"Beautiful," Carol whispers. "Dear god you're fucking perfectly beautiful. I never want to be anywhere but inside of you." 

"And yet," Therese's smiling lips tease Carol's chin as she pulls Carol up and onto the bed. Quickly, bras are unfastened so bare breasts can press lushly against one another. Therese climbs atop Carol and looks down at her. "Fingers or tongue?' she asks, breathless, but brave. 

"Both," Carol gasps and spreads her legs so Therese can pet her wet curls and delve with her tender fingers into the soaking cunt beneath. Therese kisses Carol deeply as she fingers her, but forces herself to tear her lips away and kisses her way down over breasts and belly. Her tongue is skilled and unabashed as it licks into Carol and swirls around all of the spots she knows will create an absolute sting of pleasure. Therese sucks Carol's vulva and tongues her clit. She laps with the flat of her tongue, just the way she knows Carol likes. Typically, they would not rush their ecstasy, but tonight is different. Tonight, Therese needs to feel Carol shatter hard and close on her mouth, her tongue thrust deeply inside Carol's sweet retreat. Therese feels Carol pulsate around her tongue and it is almost glorious enough to bring her to another climax, but when Carol's sweet muscles still around her, Therese licks her lips and rises so she can hold fast to the woman below her.

Barely can they either sleep or speak until morning comes, as it always does. 

"Did you miss me?" Therese asks at last.

"Are you so cruel? Really?" Carol chides but her voice is soft, laughing almost. "I did not miss you. I died. I was lost in the darkness without you Therese." She sighs heavily and holds Therese's amber scented body closer to her. "Are you really back? For real?" 

Therese props herself up on her elbow and peers down at Carol. "I am," she says. She sticks out her tongue and licks it across Carol's lips. "I am here with you. I couldn't find what I was searching for, Carol, because everywhere I looked I only wanted to find you. I love you. I belong to you. I was a fool.I"m so sorry I ever left." 

"Oh my Dearest Darling," Carol whimpers and clutches Therese's face to hers so they can kiss deep and slow. "I thought you'd kiss someone else at New Year's and I was savage." Carol laughs. 

"I can't bear to be apart from you. It was stupid of me. I'll do anything to make it right, Carol, just please take me home. Please?" 

"Hmmmmhh, perhaps?" Carol sighs. "But. . ."

"But what, Carol?" 

"But I am thinking about champagne and strawberries and cream for breakfast. And I am thinking I want to eat it in bed. And I am thinking I want to eat it here," she licks over Therese's sensitive nipple. "And here," she reaches down to stroke towards Therese's pussy which is already wet again and begging for touching. 

"Ohmygoshyesssss," Therese whines and arches up against Carol's mouth and hand. "And then we can go home?" They'd not bothered to close the curtains the night before, so the sun shines in on the promise of their love, and on the depths of their desires. 

"Yes, baby. Then we can go home." 


End file.
